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Diego Castillo

Rockies Sign Diego Castillo To Minors Deal

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The Rockies have signed right-hander Diego Castillo to a minor league contract, according to Aram Leighton of Just Baseball Media.  The pact includes an invitation for Castillo (who turns 31 next month) to attend Colorado’s big league spring camp.

Castillo is best known for his five-year run as a workhorse in the Rays’ and Mariners’ bullpens from 2018-22, as the righty posted a 3.12 ERA, 28.1% strikeout rate, 50.7% grounder rate, and 8.9% walk rate over 259 2/3 innings and 250 appearances in that span.  Unfortunately, he got off to a very rough start in his first eight games (and 8 2/3 innings) in 2023, leading the Mariners to outright him off their 40-man roster at the start of May.  Castillo spent the remainder of the season at Triple-A, then elected free agency at season’s end.

The Rangers signed Castillo to a minor league deal last winter and released him near the end of Spring Training, with the Twins then quickly adding him on another minors contract.  Castillo’s season in Minnesota saw him twice designated for assignment and outrighted off the 40-man roster, and he re-signed another minor league deal with the Twins after opting for free agency after that initial outright at midseason.  All of this movement resulted in another season of pretty minimal MLB playing time, as Castillo appeared in 10 games with the Twins and posted a 2.70 ERA in 10 innings.

Control is the biggest issue behind Castillo’s decline, as his walk rate has shot up to 14.92% over 84 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball over the last two seasons, and 17.9% in his brief MLB sample size of 18 2/3 innings.  A velocity drop may have also been partially responsible for Castillo’s struggles in 2023 specifically, though his fastball ticked upwards from 93.8mph in 2023 to 95.9 mph in 2024.

Castillo’s prime years are recent enough that it makes sense that teams would still want to take a flier on the veteran righty.  For the Rockies in particular, his ability to keep the ball on the ground could be useful in the thin air of Coors Field, if Castillo can earn himself a shot on Colorado’s active roster.

Nine Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

Catchers

Infielders

Pitchers

Twins Select Randy Dobnak

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The Twins announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Randy Dobnak. In a corresponding move, right-hander Diego Castillo was designated for assignment.

Dobnak, 29, signed an ill-fated extension with the Twins prior to the 2021 season on the heels of a 2020 campaign where he showed promise as a potential mid-rotation starter with a 4.05 ERA and 3.96 FIP through ten starts. After a strong rookie campaign in 2019, that gave Dobnak a career 3.12 ERA and 3.56 FIP across 75 innings of work in the majors at the time of the deal. Unfortunately, things quickly went off the rails for the right-hander as he surrendered a ghastly 7.64 ERA in 50 2/3 innings of work during the first year of his extension. Those lackluster results led to the club outrighting him off the 40-man roster in September of 2022.

Since then, Dobnak has remained in the Twins organization while primarily pitching at Triple-A. He’s done fairly well for himself in the minors this year, with a 4.25 ERA in 133 1/3 innings of work that earned him another look at the big league level. That stint back in the majors earlier this year didn’t go over very well, however, as Dobnak surrendered a 5.87 ERA in 7 2/3 frames before being shipped back to the minors. He’ll now finish the season in the Twins bullpen and on the 40-man roster. He remains under contract with the club through the end of the 2025 season, and does not yet have enough service time to reject an outright assignment without also forfeiting the remainder of his contract.

Making room for Dobnak on the club’s 40-man roster is Castillo, who signed with Minnesota on a minor league deal over the offseason and was first selected to the roster at the end of May. Since then, he’s posted a solid enough 2.70 ERA in 10 innings of work but hasn’t been able to stick on the Twins roster due to shaky peripherals, including more walks (eight) than strikeouts (six) in the majors. When at Triple-A with the Twins this year, Castillo has struggled badly with a 5.59 ERA in 40 appearances.

Despite those deep struggles, however, it’s not impossible to imagine the right-hander continuing to draw attention from clubs as a minor league depth option this winter. After all, Castillo excelled with the Rays and Mariners earlier in his career with a 3.12 ERA and 3.69 FIP in 250 appearances from 2018 to 2022. Any club that believes they can unlock that form in Castillo will surely have interest in bringing him into the fold and seeing what he has next spring. Of course, before Castillo can officially reach free agency he’ll need to clear waivers sometime in the next week.

Twins Select Diego Castillo, Michael Helman; Activate Brooks Lee

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The Twins announced a flurry of roster moves this afternoon as they selected the contracts of right-hander Diego Castillo and utility hitter Michael Helman to the big league roster. The club also placed outfielder Manuel Margot on the 10-day IL and activated infielder Brooks Lee from the 10-day IL. To make room for Castillo and Helman on the 40-man roster, left-hander Caleb Boushley was designated for assignment while right-hander Chris Paddack was transferred to the 60-day IL.

Castillo returns to the Twins for his second stint in the majors this year. The 30-year-old righty signed with Minnesota on a minor league deal over the offseason and was selected to the roster at the end of May. He ultimately made just five appearances for the club before being designated for assignment despite a solid 2.57 ERA thanks to worrying peripherals, highlighted by a 10% strikeout rate and an eye-popping 23.3% walk rate. Castillo elected free agency but returned to the Twins on a fresh minor league deal shortly thereafter, and since then has been pitching for the club’s Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul.

Even so, the results have not been good. While his numbers at Triple-A have been skewed by a disastrous performance where he surrendered five runs while recording just one out last month, he’s still posted a 4.00 ERA with nearly as many walks (6) as strikeouts (7) in nine innings of work since then. While Castillo was among the more reliable late-inning arms in the game from 2018 to 2022 with a 3.12 ERA and 3.69 FIP over that time, it seems extremely unlikely that he’ll be able to recapture that form down the stretch with Minnesota. That being said, his presence on the roster should allow the club to keep its key relief arms like Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax fresher down the stretch by soaking up lower-leverage innings.

As for Helman, the Twins’ eleventh-round pick in the 2018 draft has steadily worked his way through the minor leagues through his career before starting the season at Triple-A this year and delivering strong results. The 28-year-old has slashed .283/.367/.508 with 13 homers, 15 doubles, and ten steals in just 63 games this year at the level, and he’s done that while splitting time between shortstop, center field, second base, third base, and left field. The versatile defender figures to offer the Twins an interesting combination of power and speed off the bench for the stretch run, and his ability to play all over the field will surely come in handy as the club navigates injuries and rest for its regular players.

Also returning to the majors is Lee, the club’s 23-year-old top prospect who struggled to a somewhat lackluster .253/.309/.333 slash line in 110 trips to the plate at the big league level before going on the IL in early August. Now that he’s back in the majors, Lee figures to feature prominently in the club’s infield mix, though with Royce Lewis locking down third base and Willi Castro performing admirably in place of Carlos Correa at shortstop, it’s not clear whether or not Lee will be able to get regular reps as the Twins look to preserve their 3.5-game lead over the Red Sox for the final AL Wild Card spot.

As for the players moving off the roster to accommodate these additions, Margot’s placement on the IL is hardly a surprise after he suffered an apparent groin strain during last night’s game. After the game, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com) that the outfielder was “not moving well” due to the issue and would need to undergo an MRI. The results of that MRI are not yet clear, but they evidently warranted a trip to the IL for the 29-year-old outfielder, who has slashed just .250/.302/.350 in 116 games with the club this year.

Meanwhile, Paddack’s placement on the 60-day IL isn’t necessarily a surprise given the fact that he’s already been on the shelf since mid-July due to a forearm strain. A regular season return has long seemed unlikely for the right-hander, but it’s still possible he could return to action at some point in the postseason depending on how far the Twins make it this season. As for Boushley, the lefty has appeared in just two games for the Twins this year after signing a minor league deal with the club over the offseason, pitching to a 4.50 ERA in four innings of work.

Twins Re-Sign Diego Castillo To Minor League Deal

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The Twins have re-signed right-hander Diego Castillo to a minor league deal, per Theodore Tollefson of Twins Daily on X. The righty well rejoin the St. Paul bullpen and give the Twins some non-roster bullpen depth again.

Castillo, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Twins at the end of March. He reported to the Saints and performed very well, allowing five earned runs over 18 innings for an ERA of 2.50. He struck out 29.7% of batters faced, gave out walks 8.1% of the time and kept the ball on the ground at a 54.5% rate.

That got him the call to the big leagues but he wasn’t able to replicate that kind of performance. He did have a 2.57 ERA in his seven innings but was lucky to do so, as he danced around seven walks with just three strikeouts. Rather than wait for him to fall off that tightrope, the Twins designated him for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency but has now circled back to the club on a new pact.

Though the results were iffy while Castillo was with Minnesota this year, there’s plenty of sense in bringing him back aboard. He tossed 259 2/3 big league innings from 2018 to 2022 with a 3.12 ERA, 28.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 50.7% ground ball rate. His results fell off in 2023, as he posted a 6.23 ERA, but his numbers with the Saints earlier this year were fairly close to his pre-2023 work.

The Twins have four relievers on the 60-day injured list right now: Brock Stewart, Justin Topa, Daniel Duarte and Zack Weiss. A couple of the guys currently on the roster, Kody Funderburk and Caleb Thielbar, are sporting ERAs north of 5.00. Having Castillo around gives them an experienced depth arm with lots of success on his track record, should the bullpen suffer another injury or some more poor results.

Diego Castillo Elects Free Agency

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Veteran reliever Diego Castillo has elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Twins last week, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Presumably, he first cleared outright waivers.

Minnesota signed Castillo to a minor league deal during spring training and added him to the big league roster in late May. The former Rays and Mariners righty totaled seven innings out of manager Rocco Baldelli’s bullpen and only yielded two runs, but he issued seven walks in that time as well. He’s pitched well in Triple-A St. Paul, logging 18 innings with a sharp 2.50 ERA, 29.7% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 54.4% grounder rate.

Castillo was hobbled by a trio of shoulder injuries in recent years, which dropped his fastball from the upper 90s to an average of 94.2 mph in an ugly 8 2/3-inning run with the 2023 Mariners. He struggled with Triple-A Tacoma last year as well, prompting the Mariners to remove him from the 40-man roster by passing him through waivers. That granted Castillo the right to elect free agency at season’s end, which he did. He’ll now return to the open market, this time on the heels of a nice Triple-A showing with the Twins and, more importantly, after displaying a rejuvenated fastball that sat at 95.7 mph in his brief big league stint.

Between that reinvigorated fastball, his Triple-A results and an excellent track record from 2018-22, Castillo should find interest on a new minor league deal. (The Twins, conceivably, could look to quickly bring him back on a minor league pact with new terms.) Over parts of five years from ’18-’22 between Tampa Bay and Seattle, the now-30-year-old Castillo recorded a 3.12 ERA (3.38 SIERA) with a 28.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate, 50.7% ground-ball rate and 1.07 HR/9. He worked both as a closer and setup man at times along the way, so he’s no stranger to leverage situations.

Castillo also has a pair of minor league options remaining, although he’s just days away from reaching five years of big league service time, at which point he’d need to consent to being optioned. If he does land back on a big league roster and stick, he’ll be controllable through the 2025 season via arbitration.

Twins Designate Diego Castillo For Assignment

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The Twins announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-hander Diego Castillo for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to righty Jay Jackson, whose contract is being selected from Triple-A St. Paul. Right-hander Louie Varland was optioned to St. Paul to open an active roster spot for Jackson, who’ll be up for his second stint of the year in Minnesota.

Castillo inked a minor league deal during spring training and was selected to the MLB roster late last month. He’s only allowed two runs in seven innings of relief but has also issued an unsightly seven walks in that span. The veteran Castillo has pitched quite well in Triple-A, logging a 2.50 ERA with a 29.7% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 54.5% ground-ball rate in 18 innings. He also saw his average fastball velocity jump back to 95.7 mph after sitting at 94.2 mph in 2023. The Twins will have a week to trade Castillo, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him.

From 2018-22, the now-30-year-old Castillo was excellent out of the bullpens in Tampa Bay and Seattle, pitching to a combined 3.12 earned run average (3.69 FIP, 3.38 SIERA) with a strong 28.1% strikeout rate and an 8.9% walk rate that’s barely north of the league average. He kept the ball on the ground at an impressive 50.7% clip as well, and Castillo yielded just 1.07 long balls per nine frames.

A series of three shoulder injuries looked to have taken their toll on him, as last year’s 94.2 mph average fastball was a career-low and he was rocked for six runs in 8 2/3 innings with Seattle (while walking 17% of his hitters and plunking another one). It’s feasible that his track record and this year’s rejuvenated fastball could lead to interest from a bullpen-needy club, be it via a minor trade or a waiver claim.

Jackson, 36, signed a one-year, $1.5MM deal with the Twins over the winter but was hit hard in his initial stint with the club. In 22 1/3 innings, he pitched to a 6.85 ERA, yielding runs in 10 of his 17 appearances along the way. He’s allowed one run in three Triple-A innings since being designated for assignment, clearing waivers and being sent outright to St. Paul. Jackson worked mostly in low-leverage spots with the Twins and figures to do so again, unless he can more closely resemble the 2022-23 version of himself — wherein he combined for 31 innings of 2.03 ERA ball.

Because of his contract, this could become a frequent cycle for Jackson. His remaining salary makes it unlikely he’ll be claimed on waivers, so the Twins could designate him, pass him through waivers, outright him and then re-select him to the big league roster multiple this this year — whenever the need for a fresh arm arises. Of course, if Jackson can indeed begin to recapture some of his form from recent seasons, he could also pitch his way into a more permanent role in manager Rocco Baldelli’s bullpen.

Twins Select Diego Castillo

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The Twins announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Diego Castillo. The club opened a 40-man roster spot by transferring right-hander Justin Topa to the 60-day injured list. They opened an active roster spot yesterday by optioning left-hander Kody Funderburk. Going into yesterday, they were using 39 spots on their 40-man but reinstated right-hander Josh Winder from the 60-day IL and optioned him to Triple-A. Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press was among those to relay the Winder news on X.

Declan Goff of SKOR North relayed on X yesterday that Castillo was on his way to join the team but Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com relayed on X that “travel snags” were preventing Castillo from getting to the ballpark. The St. Paul Saints were playing in Buffalo and Castillo had been making his way from upstate New York. The righty didn’t make it on time and this transaction had to wait a day but is now finally official.

Castillo, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Twins back in March and has tossed 18 innings for the Saints. He has allowed 2.50 earned runs per nine innings while striking out 29.7% of batters faced, giving out walks at an 8.1% clip and getting grounders on 54.5% of balls in play.

Perhaps that gives the Twins some hope that he can back to his previous form at the big league level. The righty pitched 259 2/3 innings for the Rays and Mariners over the 2018 to 2022 period. In that time, he had a 3.12 ERA, 28.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 50.7% ground ball rate.

The 2023 season was a struggle for Castillo, as he had a 6.23 ERA through 8 2/3 innings when the Mariners outrighted him off their 40-man roster. He also had a 5.13 ERA in Triple-A last year and elected free agency at season’s end. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers but didn’t make that club out of camp, which then led to his minor league deal with the Twins.

If Castillo can put that rough 2023 campaign behind him, he’ll be a nice find for the Twins and one that could theoretically help them beyond this year. He came into 2024 with four years and 150 days of service time. Since he won’t be able to get to the six-year mark this year, he could be retained for 2025 via arbitration. He also has a couple of options left and can be sent back down to Triple-A, but there’s a bit of a ticking clock there. He’s 22 days away from getting to five years of service and can’t be optioned without his consent once he hits that line.

As for Topa, his move is a mere formality. His “60 days” are backdated to his original IL placement, which was at the end of March. That means he’s already been on the IL more than 60 days and can be reinstated whenever he’s healthy, which is not imminent. Two weeks ago, he was diagnosed with a partial tear in the patellar tendon in his left knee, with a no-throw plan of six weeks.

Winder landed on the 60-day IL back in February when the Twins acquired Manuel Margot. He has been rehabbing for about a month and is now healthy enough to be reinstated, though the club will keep him in Triple-A as optionable depth until needed.

Twins Sign Diego Castillo To Minor League Deal

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The Twins have signed reliever Diego Castillo to a minor league contract. The former Rays and Mariners setup man was announced as part of the Opening Day roster for their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul.

From 2018-22, the now-30-year-old Castillo was excellent out of the bullpens in Tampa Bay and Seattle, pitching to a combined 3.12 earned run average (3.69 FIP, 3.38 SIERA) with a strong 28.1% strikeout rate and an 8.9% walk rate that’s barely north of the league average. He kept the ball on the ground at an impressive 50.7% clip as well, and Castillo yielded just 1.07 long balls per nine frames.

Castillo has battled shoulder trouble throughout his career, however — three different IL stints — and that seems to have taken some toll on the righty. Early in his career, he averaged 98.8 mph on his four-seamer and 98.2 mph on his sinker. Those velocities were down to 94 mph with the Mariners in 2023. Castillo was rocked for six runs in his first 8 2/3 innings last season, walking an uncharacteristic seven of 41 hitters (17.1%) and plunking another during that time.

The Mariners passed Castillo and his $2.95MM salary through waivers unclaimed last May, surely hoping that he’d return to form in Triple-A Tacoma and help the club later in the season. However, his time in Tacoma didn’t go much better. In 47 1/3 frames, he posted a dreary 5.13 ERA with a decent 22.1% strikeout rate but also an alarming 15.5% walk rate. The Mariners never brought him back to the big leagues, and Castillo elected free agency at season’s end.

The Rangers signed Castillo to a minor league pact over the winter but weren’t able to get him straightened out in spring training. Command was once again a prominent issue. He walked six of 39 opponents with Texas (15.4%), plunked another and tossed a wild pitch.

Despite the sharp decline since the end of the 2022 season, Castillo has a strong overall track record in the big leagues. Minnesota, meanwhile, opened the season with closer Jhoan Duran (oblique strain) and relievers Caleb Thielbar (hamstring strain), Justin Topa (patellar tendinitis) and Josh Staumont (calf strain) on the injured list. It’s not a surprise to see them add a veteran arm with some big league success under his belt, but Castillo is clearly a project for them at this point.

If the Twins are able to get him back on track, Castillo’s 4.150 years of big league service time mean he can be controlled via arbitration through the 2025 season.

Rangers Sign Diego Castillo To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have signed right-hander Diego Castillo to a minor league contract, according to Castillo’s player page on MLB.com. The details of the the deal aren’t clear, but presumably include an invite to big league Spring Training.

Castillo, 30 next month, made his big league debut with the Rays back in 2018. Early in his career Castillo found success as a solid middle reliever for Tampa, with a 3.30 ERA and 3.53 FIP in 125 1/3 innings across 108 appearances (including 17 appearances as an opener). Castillo owned a solid 28.5% strikeout rate against a walk rate of 8.6% with an impressive 51.8% groundball rate. Among all relievers with at least 100 innings of work across the 2018-19 seasons, only Luke Jackson, Jace Fry and Ryan Pressly struck out more batters while posting a groundball rate north of 50%.

Impressive as the first two seasons of his career already were, Castillo found another gear headed into the shortened 2020 season when he posted a sterling 1.66 ERA across 21 2/3 innings of work with a whopping 60.4% groundball rate. Castillo’s success during the shortened seasons saw him establish himself as a quality set-up option at the back of the Rays bullpen, resulting in the club dealing him to the Mariners the following summer. From 2020-22, Castillo posted a 2.95 ERA (134 ERA+) despite an elevated 3.84 FIP thanks to a 27.8% strikeout rate and a 49.7% groundball rate.

Unfortunately, things came off the rails for Castillo entering the 2023 season as the righty struggled to a 6.23 ERA across 8 2/3 innings of work for Seattle early in the year, resulting in the club outrighting Castillo off the roster in early May. The right-hander’s struggles continued in the minors throughout the year, as Castillo posted an ERA of 5.13 across 47 1/3 innings of work at the Triple-A level across the remainder of the season. Castillo became a minor league free agent back in October, giving the Rangers the opportunity to pick him up on a non-roster deal.

Brutal as Castillo’s performance was in 2023, his addition could provide a significant boost to the Rangers if he’s able to re-establish himself as a quality set-up arm or even as a solid middle reliever. Entering the 2023 season, Castillo sported a career 3.12 ERA and 3.69 FIP. Meanwhile, the Rangers had one of the worst relief corps in the entire league last season, even before the departures of Aroldis Chapman, Will Smith, and Chris Stratton in free agency.

While Jose Leclerc is a strong back-end option and the likes of Kirby Yates and Brock Burke could be valuable pieces, Texas will need contributions from others outside of that trio to improve upon their 2023 bullpen ERA of 4.77. A rebound for Castillo would go a long way to achieving that goal, but for now the right-hander figures to enter the spring with competing for a spot in the club’s bullpen with the likes of Grant Anderson and Jake Latz.

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